Prisoner
by shinrabanshou
Summary: HaruToki3 - Izayoiki, contains major spoilers for Hiraizumi and both Kurou and Masaomi's background. Kurou thinks on how his friendship with Masaomi has changed. Slight and vaguely one-sided KurouMasaomi.


Disclaimer: The series is owned by Mizuno Tooko, Koei, and Ruby Party. All characters and their respective angst will be returned once I'm done with them.  
Major spoilers, both direct and subtle, for Izayoiki in particular and various pieces of both Kurou and Masaomi's paths.

Prisoner

Kurou sighed (unconsciously) while his eyes tracked Masaomi's movement (again, unconsciously) as the other wandered out of the room. To say his relationship ("no, not _that_ kind!" he had told Benkei emphatically earlier in the day) with Masaomi had become strained was, Kurou thought bitterly, quite the understatement. Even though the blue-haired man hadn't always been with their group, he could be counted on to lighten the mood with his easygoing attitude when he was present. Except now Masaomi barely said a word to anyone, even Nozomi, unless coerced into conversation. Kurou hadn't worked up the courage necessary to try and so the awkwardness that disrupted their once-friendly relationship continued.

He had already been through an angry phase where he declared repeatedly to himself that what he had done wasn't wrong. The Heike had created the onryou and turned an already difficult war into something harder for their side to justify. Kurou had felt so sure that his brother wanted peace that he had followed his instructions to the letter. The one constant he had counted on (mistakenly, he now knew, but how could he have forseen the repeated betrayals from those he held so dear?) from the start was his brother. After he met Nozomi and the rest of their group, though, the person he felt closest to was Masaomi. It may have been partly because they formed the Heaven and Earth of Seiryuu, but Kurou knew that (at least on his part) other emotions also helped make up his bond to the other man.

There were times now when Kurou walked into a room and found Masaomi talking quietly to Atsumori, but both went silent when they noticed him. It occured later to Kurou (too long after the fact to bring the incidents up to either of them, as Kurou's realizations tended to arrive) that they had most likely been discussing the Heike, the only subject aside from being Hachiyou that both seemed to have in common. Upset even further than before, Kurou would turn on his heel and beat a hasty retreat (self-presevation, he told himself, and not surrender) whenever he saw Masaomi after that realization. If he were in Masaomi's place, Kurou reasoned, the last person he would want to spend copious amounts of time around would be those with close ties to the Genji. His clan was responsible for the emotional and monetary damage the Heike had sustained (even if a lot of them deserved it and that's how the war started in the first place, he defended inwardly), and Masaomi had spent more than three years thinking of them as family (though hopefully not so much with that creepy Koremori, especially since Kaerinaifu was supposed to be the decidedly strange man's father brought back to life) and so naturally worried about their safety. How could he not immediately connect Kurou to the cause of losing everything he had come to depend on in this world (Nozomi and Yuzuru - and now Atsumori - aside, Kurou amended, hesitent to include anyone else from their group) when Kurou's own brother was the head of the Genji? The more Kurou thought about why Masaomi had good reasons to never speak to him again the deeper into depression he sank.

It wasn't even as if the other could return to the Heike because they had no idea where the Taira clan had retreated to after Dan-no-Ura. Hell, there was no guarantee that any of the main family were even still alive, so Masaomi really had no choice but to stay with the side he had so long thought of as the enemy. Kurou wandered out of the room and sank against the wall of the veranda, his makeshift pacing area while thinking, and rested his forehead on his knees. He didn't want to give up his former camradarie with Masaomi. Even with all the other things he had to worry about (though the stabbing pain that the thought of his brother brought with it kept him from dwelling on that subject for too long) Kurou centered on that one wish. If he could go back to the way things had been with Masaomi, Kurou knew he could find the strength to deal with all the other problems their group faced.

A couple of quick footsteps nearby preceeded a soft question of, "Kurou?"

The redhead looked up quickly and caught a flash of concern on Masaomi's face before it became expressionless. Eyes wide, he wanted to cry at the glimpse of caring the other had shown after ignoring him for so long. As his surprise crumbled into misery Kurou turned his head away. "I- It's nothing." He didn't want Masaomi to see him break down at first a kind word and then its retraction.

"I see." Masaomi's voice was cold again as he turned and walked away, and Kurou clenched his hands into fists to keep them from trembling.

The retreating footfalls were slower and dragged almost reluctantly along the walkway. Kurou choked on a breath as his eyes returned to the blue-haired man's back. "Masa- omi..." His voice cracked halfway through the name he spoke without conscious consent.

Masaomi stopped and waited a few seconds before he turned around. His expression wasn't as open as it had been before everything had gone to hell, but neither was it the blank mask he had worn since their arrival in Hiraizumi. "What is it?" The words didn't carry the edge they'd held moments before either. Kurou forced himself to look Masaomi in the eye and saw the lines around them that expressed pain similar to the kind that tore through Kurou's chest at the sight of the other man. He couldn't speak around the lump in his throat. Masaomi seemed to understand though, and gave him a small, bitter smile before he continued. "I'm going out for a walk. Let's talk after I get back?"

Kurou blinked to keep the salt in his eyes from turning to stinging tears. "Yeah." He swallowed hard and nodded for emphasis, his heart rising faintly with hope. Masaomi tilted his head to the side then waved over his shoulder briefly as he continued on his way. Kurou watched him go before he looked out over the estate's garden and sighed, a good deal of the weight that had pushed his shoulders down eased just slightly as the chains that constricted his heart loosened. Maybe, he allowed himself to whisper inside his mind, things could work out okay.


End file.
